Chiming in here from NYC, every BestBuy in the metro area you have to literally make a scene to get an employee. One of my last visits I spent literally 15 minutes at an empty checkout with a staffed door, and all I could think was they can pay a guy at the door all day but no checkout people, why don’t I just steal my purchase? Thats what they consider important, no? Additional info, I usually go “early” (think noon) to these stores, but still seems sad.

As a German I would hate that from the bottom of my heart. Why is this necessary? When I go shopping in a supermarket here I'm lucky if I find an employee I can ask and outside the checkout they're always busy stocking the shelves. But that's not a bad thing, you can usually find everything quickly yourself and I prefer to have my peace when shopping. It's already enough for me that the store is full of other people who are also shopping.